


calling chord

by cruellae (tinkabelladk)



Category: Persona 5
Genre: AU - rock band, Inspired by Art, Love Song, M/M, clueless trumpet players, ponytail Goro, sexy rockstars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25598377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinkabelladk/pseuds/cruellae
Summary: inspired by this magnificent work ofponytail!goro artby @reveriesky on twitter
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 38
Kudos: 289





	calling chord

When you really got down to it, music was basically math. That’s how Akechi Goro always thought of it, and he played with a numerical precision that impressed his professors at Julliard but usually left the bands he tried out for feeling that there was a missing element. The indefinable “passion” that was a prerequisite for performance. 

But The Phantom Thieves seemed to appreciate his exactness, his quick fingers and his ability to take the lead singer’s rambling notes and snippets of hummed tunes and turn them into black notes dancing up and down the clean lines of the staff. Ren couldn’t read music, but he didn’t need to, because he  _ felt  _ it, in a way that Goro was never able to. 

The Phantom Thieves was a rock and roll band, but they incorporated a trumpet, a violin, and a synthesizer along with the traditional guitars and drums. Somehow, Ren made it work. And not just work. He made it  _ rock.  _

Ren was a prolific songwriter as well as their frontman, and most of his songs were about love. They were all written for the same girl, who Goro assumed must be Ren’s ex, given that Ren seemed to have a lover in every city they visited, disappearing in the evenings to visit his “confidants,” and returning late to their shared hotel room. He always roomed with Goro, though he had much closer friendships with the other members of the band. 

“Is this song for Robin too?” Goro asked, collecting together his notes from their latest jam session. It was just him and Ren this time, working on a piece that heavily featured his trumpet, so much so that it was almost a duet. 

The idea of playing a duet with Ren, the spotlight on just the two of them, made Goro’s chest clench with longing that he immediately suppressed. 

“Yeah,” Ren said, rolling his shoulders. He was wearing a tight black T-shirt and torn jeans, combat boots and a black leather cuff with spikes, because he dressed like a rockstar even when he wasn’t onstage. 

Sometimes it felt like the Ren most people in his personal life knew—big glasses, shy smile—was the disguise, and Joker, lead singer of The Phantom Thieves, was his true self. Or at least Goro liked to think so, because Ren rarely wore that inconspicuous, nonthreatening disguise when they were together, and Goro hoped it was because he was comfortable being himself.

“It’s okay,” Goro said. “I promise I won’t tell the press that all of your love songs are for the same person.” 

Ren coughed, then cleared his throat. “Uh. Thanks.” 

“But you should tell this Robin how you feel. I don’t know how anyone could hear those songs and not feel something for you in return.” 

“Right.” Ren lowered his gaze, the slightest hint of a blush on his cheeks. “Well, maybe I’ll serenade my Robin tonight. How about that?” 

“It’s about time,” Goro said, with a wry glance at Ren. The thought of Ren singing to some pretty girl in the audience was painful, but it was better to have a clean break like this than continue this pointless infatuation. A passionate rockstar like Joker was not going to fall for someone who played with flawless precision, but nothing more. 

Through their entire set, Goro watched Ren, waiting for the serenade. It wasn’t enough to make him miss a note, but it did throw him oddly off balance. As the last song arrived—the newest one, with the trumpet solo—Goro began to wonder if Ren had decided against it. 

But as Yusuke set the beat and Futaba’s synthesizer rang in the first notes of  _ Calling Card,  _ Ren gave Goro that cocky smirk that made his breath catch and heat stir low in his belly. 

“This one is for my Robin,” Ren said, looking out at the crowd. “Robin sings so sweet for me, how could I not fall in love?” 

Goro wondered if Robin was actually a nickname for Ann, who did the backup vocals. 

But Ren winked at him, lifted the mic, and began to sing, and all other thoughts left his head. 

_ This is my calling card, calling card~ _

_ I’m going to take your heart, take your heart~ _

His voice was rich and resonant, and no matter how often Goro heard it, in practice and in the recording studio and on the stage, it never failed to sweep him away in a heady wave. 

Goro’s cue arrived and he raised the trumpet and followed the cascade of notes Ren had written, the call of his horn blending with the wails of Ryuji’s guitar. When he lowered his instrument, he turned to see that Ren was crossing the stage with definite purpose, his eyes on Goro. 

_ Your heart is the treasure I’ve come to steal~ _

_ I’ll show you what’s possible, show you what’s real~ _

Ren lowered the mic for the brief moment of stillness that passed before the trumpet solo began. His eyes never left Goro’s face, lit with adoration and hope and anxiety. 

Goro felt for a moment like the song was entirely literal, that his heart had indeed been stolen, and was currently cradled in Ren’s hands. But before he could say anything, do anything, to answer the question in Ren’s expression, he heard his cue, and lifted his trumpet to his lips. 

As he played the first notes of the trumpet solo, he felt something overtake him. A hot, heady sensation that loosened his limbs and made his chest thrum in time with the music around him, the song that Ren had written for him and he had faithfully transcribed as a way to return that devotion. 

He was caught up in the song like a storm. He poured all the strange and beautiful things Ren made him feel into the music, filling the auditorium with his joy and longing and desire. His trumpet called out all the words he could never say to Ren, announced them boldly over the stage and to the crowd. Amidst the swell of music, he wondered if everyone could see what he felt as clearly as if there were lights shining from his chest. 

Ren must have heard it, because when Goro lowered the trumpet at the end of his solo, Ren grinned at him and closed the distance between them, resting his hand on the small of Goro’s back. 

And when he sang the refrain, Goro realized Ren had changed the lyrics just slightly. 

_ This is my calling card, calling card~ _

_ Will you take my heart, take my heart~ _

Ren’s eyes never left Goro’s face, his hand hot through Goro’s thin T-shirt. Dimly, Goro wondered what Ren’s fans would think of this, but then Ren slipped one finger beneath the hem of Goro’s shirt to rest directly against his skin, and he nearly missed a note as a shock of heat went through him. 

When the set finished and the last ringing chord filled the large space, Ren didn’t pull away from Goro even as the lights dimmed and the curtain closed around them. 

And then he was kissing Goro, and nothing else mattered. Goro leaned into it, curling one hand around the back of Ren’s neck, his trumpet forgotten in the other. He might have lingered there forever, lost in the taste of Ren’s lips and the intoxicating feel of his tongue against Goro’s own, but the cheers and catcalls from the rest of the Phantom Thieves brought them back to reality. 

“Guess we’d better play an encore,” Ren said, his voice rough and breathy. But his eyes lingered on Goro, promising a very different kind of performance later. “Be ready, Robin. I’m going to take your heart.”

And then he winked at Goro and turned to the audience as the curtain began to lift again. 


End file.
